Removing the penalty for switching wouldn't really do anything either, all that would do is make a mass exodus to the "winning" Grand Company all the more common and further skew matches...

If we had something like Final Fantasy XIV Conquest system

Lore is a completely bullshit excuse, the only reason to keep the current set up is for the ways it enhances PvP. Removing the penalty for switching wouldn't really do anything either, all that would do is make a mass exodus to the "winning" Grand Company all the more common and further skew matches...

The Grand Company restriction is in place for Frontlines (which it is worth remembering has always been sold as "casual" PvP) to create a more welcoming atmosphere, you're automatically part of a team from the get go, after all. Whether you're new to PvP or a veteran, you've already got a team to fight for, I at least quite like the restriction for that alone. I like that my team generally has the same faces, I like that I can spot (and harass) rivals, rather than each match having purely randomized teams that I wouldn't care about at all. Lore really doesn't come into it at all, they can make up any contrived reason for static teams or non-static teams.

What they should do, is both ease up (not remove) the restriction, and enhance the sense of purpose behind the Grand Companies. Honestly, Grand Companies might as well not exist in this game, there is no real reason for them... If we had something like Final Fantasy XIVs Conquest system, however, then perhaps they'd actually serve some gameplay aspect, rather than being an arbitrary glamour restriction (which is all they are outside PvP). Whether that ties into Frontlines or not is another question, but I'd certainly like it if I wasn't just winning in Frontlines for more Wolf Marks, but instead to go towards some weekly tally that can bring Twin Adders on top (although this would be in Frontlines, so I should just burn that dream...) for some kind of bonus to all Adders on my server...

As for easing up the restriction; Mercenaries. Opt in or forced, I don't particularly care. Queues wouldn't be instant, but 72 people queue up (20A/24F/28M), hold them all for like a minute looking for 4 more Adders, then just go "Fuck It" and slap those 4 excess Maelstrom in with the Adders for a match as Mercs, with something like "Mercenaries receive a 10% bonus to PvP EXP and Wolf Marks when placing first" to add incentive to actually push for first, rather than sabotaging for your real team. That should improve queues, without completely throwing away the good Grand Companies can bring to PvP...

At the very least I think SE should try for some middle ground, before completely gutting Grand Companies out of the game. Completely removing the restriction and just having purely random teams always struck me as the table-flip response... I'd rather they work on improving something, rather than swinging from one extreme to the other...

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